


I like your hair

by rizathelionheart



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Post-Promised Day, right after Promised Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:35:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27228949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rizathelionheart/pseuds/rizathelionheart
Summary: Right after the Promised Day, Roy and Riza need each other to simply stand.
Relationships: Riza Hawkeye & Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang
Comments: 9
Kudos: 58





	I like your hair

**Author's Note:**

> This was kind of a spur of a moment thing, so it was only revised once. I hope you can still enjoy it, please let me know what you think.
> 
> EDIT: Just revised it. Can't promise it's great, but I think it's a little cute story and I love both Breda and Rebecca.
> 
> THANK YOU FOR READING.

Alphonse woke up. Central command was in pieces. Almost every person they knew seemed at least a little broken. Riza thought to herself that at least Alphonse was fine and had his body back and with that thought she fell to her knees. Roy, who had his arm around her body steadying her, felt the motion too.

“Lieutenant, are you okay?” Roy asked, the concerned audible in his voice. “Lieutenant!”

She didn’t want to worry him further but she had to breathe, it was all over but she felt so weak, even though she would have to be his eyes. If she fainted, he’d be lost. So she took a deep breath before answering.

“I’m sorry, sir.” Riza apologized. “I am alright, just weak. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

Roy, too, fell to his knees next to her and pulled her hand in order to hold it.

“Don’t worry, Lieutenant.” Roy said in a calm voice. “You did what you could. Just hush now. We need to find you a paramedic now.”

He motioned to get up but she pulled him back.

“How do you suppose to walk without me, sir?” Riza asked. She could see the people moving around, soldiers helping soldiers, the process of cleaning up was starting slowly.

Paramedics had just started walking into the Central HQ ruins, their unit probably had something to do with the help getting there so quickly. She thought to herself that she would wait for help to reach her, she couldn’t walk any longer and she wasn’t about to let her blind commanding officer walk around the debris by himself. Plus many other people needed to be rescued.

“Oh, I suppose I can feel my way to them!” Roy scratched the back of his neck, feeling sorry for himself.

He felt mostly useless, how could he just sit there and wait for them to get to her? She needed help, she fell due to weakness. In his mind he cursed himself, the word “useless” repeating over and over again.

“It’s not safe.” Riza mumbled. “How would you find me again?”

Roy felt a pinch of hatred for whatever creature had taken his sight earlier. But even without his sight, he knew one thing: he could always find her. She was different from everyone else in his life, no matter how much he cared for others, she was different somehow.

“I can always find you.” He whispered with certainty. “I will always find you, Riza.”

Her heart fluttered in her chest and she smiled at the sound of her name on his lips. After that day, after thinking she had lost him several times, too many times, she was glad for that lack of boundaries and propriety. She didn’t feel like the soldier Lieutenant Hawkeye who keeps a straight face no matter what, but unlike herself. More similar to a broken little girl in need of her best friend, of her safe port.

“I know, but right now I don’t need you to find me. I need you to sit here next to me and help me stand. Can you do that? Please.”

Roy felt the need to do so. How could he say no to that? He settled next to her and used his hands to feel where her shoulder was, getting closer to her.

“Okay, I’m sorry.” Roy answered in a whisper. “Please lay on me.”

She startled and he felt it. He knew what was coming, but before she could berate him on military regulations and propriety, he spoke.

“Tell me if I’m wrong, okay?” He asked, always speaking in a whisper that soothed Riza inside. “There are a few paramedics rescuing soldiers and alchemists, probably someone near Alphonse for he must be weak, weaker than most. They are taking them away but there’s still many people to go round. But I can almost say I know, no one is paying any attention to anything that’s going on. Am I right?”

She didn’t answer and just looked at him for a second, almost forgetting he lost his sight. When she felt the pang of pain from the realization she started to speak but Roy clapped his hands and a wall rose behind them. He pushed their bodies a little towards it so they could both rest on it.

“Lay on it and lay on me, Riza.” Roy whispered in a honeyed command. “No one will be worried about what two broken soldiers do to remain standing right now. We’ll get through this together, like we always do, but now you have to let yourself rest until help arrives.”

She nodded and laid her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes and ignored the pain on her neck. She was basking in the soft movements of his chest breathing in, out, in, out. His heartbeat was accelerated but it was there. Suddenly she felt less weak. She didn’t realize how she hadn’t even gotten any time to recover from thinking she had lost him. Roy Mustang, her commanding officer, her childhood friend, the only man she had ever fallen in love with was alive, if slightly maimed, but alive nonetheless. She could work with that. They had always done everything together, she could continue as long as he was there.

“Roy?” She whispered softly into his chest.

He opened his eyes, startled, and felt a blush creeping onto his face due to his honeyed name leaving her lips.

“Yes?” He answered, lifting his hand and feeling around to brush her loose hair. He had always enjoyed her hair but whenever it was loose. Roy could feel the smell of her shampoo mixed with ash and blood. He had never touched her grown out hair, and he had always wanted to do it.

“Thank you.” She said.

“No, thank you.” Roy replied. “The best thing is that from today on, I’ll have you with me again.”

He said that as she'd be back in his unit, but he knew he hoped for so much more, for her and for himself. His hand dropped to her arm and he tightened gently in a strange embrace. All he could manage with her wounds and his own, but it would do, she’d understand.

“Have I ever told you I like to see your hair down?” Roy asked, trying to think of things to pass the time and forget the pain. Although he quickly realized he would never see it again and the sigh he let out after asking the question made it clear to Riza that he too realized it. They both ignored that thought, it was not the time.

“No.” Riza laughed slightly and lowly. “Commanding officers aren’t supposed to say those things.”

“I thought we had agreed to be past that right now.” Roy replied a little harsher and he moved to play with her hair, it was painted in blood and he could feel it, still damp and clotting against his finger tips. “And it’s true. I like your hair, not just long, but in anyway. It has your smell and when it is down it reminds me of you in a more domestic context that I would love to see you more often in.”

With that he went quiet because suddenly he could see her hair splattered on the floor of the tunnels as she bled out. He shut his eyes in order to push the image away but it wouldn’t budge. Eyes closed or eyes opened all he could see was agony and darkness.

“Well, I like your hair too.” Riza replied, instantly pulling Roy out of his thoughts. “I like how it is messy most of the time. I like how you can’t even properly tame it for formal events when you push it back and then there's a few messy locks that fall out of it. In a way, it’s a good metaphor for you as a person.”

“Untameable?” He scoffed.

“I suppose in a way.” Riza thought out loud. “But also in the way you are always like yourself. It is quite handso-.”

She stopped herself and blushed, for the first and only time glad that he couldn’t see her. Also because she felt broken, more than ever before. Riza didn't want the man who was the love of her life to see her like that. Although she cursed herself right away, his blindness would be a new barrier for them. He also didn’t say anything, he just smiled contently to himself. It was good to see it in his face again, Riza thought. He would tease her about that slip up if they weren't both falling apart.

“How are you feeling?” He asked as she adjusted and put his arm around her shoulders protectively.

“I’ve been better.” She replied, leaning on his chest.

“Well, I know that.” Roy teased slightly. “I am asking for specifics?”

“I feel a little nauseated and dizzy.” Riza continued. “Tired and short of breath. But I am better than I was before we sat.”

“I still don’t like what I hear.” Roy said, concerned again. “Is anyone near us?”

She opened her eyes and saw Armstrong receiving help from a paramedic while Izumi spoke with Ed's and Al's father, Hohenheim, while a paramedic looked at her husband's broken arm. There were a lot more paramedics than before and many soldiers, both from Briggs and from the East, being taken into ambulances. She wondered if they’d have enough beds in Central for everybody needing help. She also wondered if they'd see Gracia Hughes at hospital and if she'd be happy they were alive, or mad they didn't have the same fate as her husband.

“Everything's a mess of debris and people. There’s lots of people and soldiers being helped and rescued. I can see Major Armstrong, Ed’s and Al’s father and their teacher from here.” She would lend him her eyes as long as she possibly could. Even if that meant forever, she hadn't any intention of ever leaving his side again. Riza had wished they could have switched places, if only it were as easy as offering her eyes to get his back. "They took the Elric brothers already and I suppose the girl from Xing went with them."

 _The girl from Xing._ Roy thanked her in his mind and thought that he'd have to find her again and properly express his gratitude. His mind wondered freely at that thought and went back to the urgent need of helping Riza. The work the little girl had done only stopped the bleeding, she would need blood transfusions and a bed to rest, not the hard floor, she had had enough of that for the day. Even the little girl told him, she had to be careful and even then Riza still fought.

“You need help. There seems to be more help than before around if they are taking care of a broken arm. How many steps away is the closest paramedic?” Roy asked.

“No.” Riza insisted. “They’ll get to me.”

Roy kissed the her eyebrow and felt tears building in his eyes, he had to help her. He wasn't able to do anything earlier but he would now. He could never watch himself being useful to her agony. He had to find help, it was the least he could do.

“Your symptoms don’t look good.” Roy said. “I cannot lose you again ever. And today has been enough. I am going to get you a paramedic and you can either help me get there or stay here but I will get help.”

She could see the tears forming in his eyes. She lifted her hand to his face to brush them under his lids before they slipped out.

“You won’t lose me.” Riza repeated her words. “I won’t die. You wouldn’t let me.”

As she finished saying that she saw their unit, Rebecca, Ross and Brosh arriving with paramedics. Ross ran towards Major Armstrong probably preparing to take him into an ambulance to fix up his broken bones. Rebecca and Breda spotted Mustang and Hawkeye.

Roy was trying to leave their comfortable embrace but she interrupted him.

“Help is coming, sir.” The professionalism that she could still muster was back in her voice, to his distaste she also placed took her hands away from him. Their soft and much needed embrace broken.

“Colonel, Lieutenant,” Rebecca called hurriedly and concerned as she made her way to them. “What happened? You both look like crap.”

Rebecca quickly took notice of the state of Mustang’s eyes as she crouched in front of the broken officers.

“I’m blind.” Roy said in a stern voice before anyone could anticipate it. “Apparently it’s Truth’s punishment for those that have dreams for the future. But we still won.”

Heymans and Rebecca looked shocked before they could do anything else. Riza held back tears and bit her lip when he voiced the thoughts she was trying to avoid even thinking about. But she told herself, she couldn't break not in that place and not with the Colonel with her. Breaking would be left for her quiet moment's with Hayate. The dog's snuggles a constant comfort.

“But I’m okay.” Roy declared. “The Lieutenant needs help quickly.”

Both nodded.

“No. The Colonel also needs to be seen and taken to the hospital, his hands need treatment and his eyes should be looked at by a doctor too. He would, at least, benefit from a full examination. I will not go anywhere until he is also checked.”

Rebecca sighed but knew there wasn’t anything she could say to dissuade her best friend or her commanding officer. Heymans softly muttered a "stubborn mules" and Rebecca nodded in agreement and they stood for a while trying to figure out what to do.

“Okay, sirs, we will take you to the same hospital.” Heymans declared. “Can you stand, Hawkeye?”

Roy didn't give her time to answer. He lifted her arm around his neck and held her waist. He used the wall to propel them upwards and start to walk. Roy whispered "lean on me, Riza, I'll help you". Rebecca rolled her eyes and took Riza's other arm, but she sighed in pain. So both officers tried to replace Roy as her aid, since he couldn't see and she could barely walk, but it was a no deal. Riza could stand as long as he was there to help her do so and Roy could see through her eyes, as long as they had each other they would never be alone or lost. In a broken embrace they would face the world together, falling apart together and lifting each other up every time.

Catalina and Breda could only sigh at the scene, there was no getting in between the Colonel and his Lieutenant or vice-versa. Not even, Lieutenant Hawkeye, who was usually the voice of reason, managed to convince Mustang they could use somebody else's help. And in the end, leaning on Mustang was the only thing giving her strength to remain standing.

* * *

With Lieutenant Breda's and Lieutenant Catalina's help they made it to an ambulance and to the hospital. The officers followed the ambulance on Heymans's car, instructing soldiers to stand guard in the room they were preparing for the Lieutenant and her Colonel until they got a more permanent solution to the protection their shared room.

“How is it possible?” Rebecca asked. "They looked done for it and yet she just set there looking like a ghost."

“What?” Breda replied with another question and a smirk.

“Those fools.” She answered.

“You mean those fools in love?” Breda smirked again.

She sighed in desperation. Of course, she thought, but didn’t say it, protecting something that she couldn't understand.

“You have to admit it though. Their dedication to each other is something to admire.” Breda smiled, honestly.

“Yeah, no doubt.” Rebecca sighed again. “I just wish they would be honest with each other and get done with this- this- pining?”

“Yeah." Breda replied. "In the other hand, Havoc is going to love this story."

Rebecca laughed and nodded.

"But they know, right? They have to have realized by now, right?" Rebecca asked again.

"Oh, I think they have.” Breda replied with a smirk.

That only made Rebecca more curious. She showered him with more and more questions on the way to the hospital. Breda finally answered a few and Rebecca learnt how Mustang called her best friend "his queen". At that she took a hand to her face.

"They should just fuck and be done with it!" Rebecca said as they parked, provoking a laugh from Heymans.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: This has been revised twice now because I'm a bundle of anxiety.


End file.
